pork

Pluralporks (some meanings)

Formsporks, porking, porked

1. 1
   pig meatnoununcountable

   The meat of a pig, eaten as food.

   She marinated the pork overnight in garlic and lime juice.

   Some religions forbid eating pork.

   Note

   The word came through Anglo-Norman from Old French porc, which meant the hog as well as its flesh; in English it settled on the plate, while pig and swine kept the living animal. Farrow is its native twin, descended from the same ancient root through Old English fearh, "piglet".

2. 2
   political spendingnounslangderogatoryUScountable or uncountable

   Government money that a member of Congress seeks for special interests or for voters back home rather than for the good of the whole country.

   Critics said the defense bill was stuffed with pork for the chairman's home state.

   Both parties promise to cut pork, then quietly add their own projects to the budget.

   Note

   Calling spending pork is an accusation, never a neutral description: the lawmaker who won the money calls it an investment in the district. The word belongs to American political argument, usually as a mass noun (cut pork, a bill stuffed with pork), and a neutral report says earmarks or local spending instead.

3. 3
   have sexverbslangvulgartransitive

   To have sex with someone, used mostly with a man as the subject.

   Similarbang, bone, bonk, boink, ball

   Note

   The tone is locker-room bragging, the register of crude film comedy rather than of anyone's real talk about sex. It is vulgar enough to offend in most company, and it treats the other person as a conquest, so it belongs to crude comedy at most and never to ordinary conversation.

4. 4
   policenoundialectalMulticultural London Englishcollectivecountable or uncountable

   The police and others in law enforcement, or anyone seen as siding with the prosecution of criminals.

   Pork pulled up outside the chicken shop, so everyone scattered.

   He's been chatting to the pork, so nobody on the estate trusts him now.

   Similarpolice, pig, fuzz, feds, heat

   Note

   Multicultural London English uses it collectively, the way standard English uses the police: the pork pulled up, he's been chatting to the pork. It belongs to the same family of insults as pig, bacon and swine and carries their hostility, so it is a word to recognize rather than one to borrow.

5. 5
   chessnouncountable

   In chess, a position that subjects a player's pieces to a pin and a fork simultaneously.

   Black walked into a pork and had no way to save every piece.

   Spotting the pork too late, she saw that her knight was pinned and her rooks forked at once.

   Note

   The name is chess wordplay, a blend of pin and fork, the two tactics it springs at once, so it has no tie to the meat beyond the spelling. Players use it as an ordinary countable noun: someone walks into a pork, or spots one too late.

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